Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion for the suspension of standing and sessional orders so that this critical debate can occur on the eve of the anniversary of 'Assassination Day', the eve of the anniversary of 'Ascension Day' for the new Prime Minister. Surely, 12 months is an appropriate time for this House and for the Australian people to make a judgment about whether the right choice has been made.

I notice that a survey by Essential Media Communications published today tells us that the Australian people have made a decision about whether they think Australia is a better place since the ascension of this Prime Minister. A whopping 13 per cent of Australians think their country is better off for having had Julia Gillard as their Prime Minister—13 per cent. Fifty-one per cent say they are worse off. How could you come to any other judgment? The report card shows a gigantic F for fail for this Prime Minister. She has failed.

We are a year older, just deeper in debt, if I may misquote Tennessee Ford. A year older and deeper in debt by $50 billion. Every day she has been in office, another $100 million has had to be borrowed to pay for the excess of expenditure over what she has earned. Yet this government has not been short on raising taxes. There are always new ideas, new schemes, to take more money from the Australian people. The Australian people have had enough. The Prime Minister has burnt her own credibility. She has burnt the credibility of the Labor government with the people. Building the Education Revolution, the computers in schools, the boats and the new taxes are all burning holes in the wallets of the Australian people. And, of course, the Home Insulation Program is still burning down the houses. This is the record of this government: failure and burning down houses. This government has no understanding and no appreciation of the pain that it is inflicting on ordinary Australian people. Is it any wonder that they are angry?

The Prime Minister told us that she needed to replace the former Prime Minister because the previous government had lost its way. How many people now think that the government has found the right road under the new Prime Minister? No-one. Indeed, it has lost the compass. She could find the road to the Lodge, but that is about all. She has found no road forward. She has found no way of dealing with the significant issues that our country must address. This was supposed to be a year of delivery and decision. Remember the promises about the mining tax, the illegal boat arrivals and the climate action plan? All of them, one year on, are not resolved.

Look at the mining tax—what a debacle. She inherited this tax from her predecessor and said she would fix it. She had to rely on the Minister for Resources and Energy to try to stitch up a deal that let off all the big miners so they make little or no contribution but put a huge burden on those trying to develop new mines—the future of our country, those who will employ the Australians to keep our economy strong. The mining supertax has been a superdisaster.

Next it was the illegal boat arrivals. She was going to stop them. There have been 89 more boats—5,000 people. Remember the Prime Minister saying there would be no more onshore detention centres for asylum seekers? Within weeks there were three new ones opening up, and then all sorts of other solutions along the way. But now we have the master solution. Five thousand extra people is not enough. We are going to take five for every one that we give away. What sort of a solution is that to the problems?

Then there is the carbon tax—the carbon tax that was categorically ruled out twice. Earlier than that, she said there would be no carbon tax without a consensus. She has achieved a consensus. There is consensus on the carbon tax: we don't want it! Yet she will not listen to the people who surely ought to have the authority in matters like this.

So one year on, deeper in debt, more in trouble than ever before and with broken promises and a litany of disaster and failure, this Prime Minister has failed. She deserves to be censured and she should be censured today, on the anniversary of her ascension. (Time expired)

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